


we are the heroes of our time

by Dyphen



Series: we are the heroes 'verse [1]
Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - My Hero Academia Fusion, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Heroes and Villains, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Timeline Fic, West End Cast, don't really need to know mha to read this, i also drew a picture for this :), i hope y'all enjoy!!, jeremy's a hero and michael's a villain, the bmc characters are in the mha universe, they have quirks!!, unsympathetic michael
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:13:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26666497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dyphen/pseuds/Dyphen
Summary: “I don’t even know your name. Or your quirk.”Oh! He knew he’d forgotten something!“I’m Jeremy! I can grow flowers and plants from my hands! It’s nice to meet you!” he says, demonstrating by growing a small daisy and extending the other hand towards him.His companion glances at his hand warily, before shaking it.“I’m Michael.”or, a timeline of jeremy's relationship with michael (and others).
Relationships: Jake Dillinger/Jeremy Heere, Jeremy Heere & Michael Mell
Series: we are the heroes 'verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2002015
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12





	we are the heroes of our time

**Author's Note:**

> title is from Heroes by Måns Zelmerlöw
> 
> hey everyone!! hope you enjoy this! you don't need to know about my hero to read this apart from the fact that almost everyone in the world develops a superpower, or 'quirk'. 
> 
> i also used a character from the show in this fic; his name is shinsou, and the reason i did is because his quirk is kinda similar to the one i gave michael. everything else is explained but i thought i should give you all a heads up :)
> 
> one last thing: michael is portrayed as unsympathetic for a large proportion of this fic. to not spoil anything, he isn't as much at the end, but it's still there, so heads up to any super huge michael fans lol

Jeremy is seven when he meets his first friend.

“Why aren’t you playing with anyone?”

The boy Jeremy directs the question at looks up, startled. He looks like he’s been crying, and his glasses have misted up. There's a leaf in his ginger hair.

He sniffs. “No-one wants to play with me because I can’t control my quirk.”

Jeremy blinks. “Oh. What is it?”

“I... I can control people’s movements,” he says, wiping his eyes and staring back down at ground. “People think it’s a mean quirk.”

Jeremy blinks again, before smiling at him. “That sounds so cool! Much cooler than my quirk, anyway. It’s like you’re a video game controller! Is it just people? Or can you do animals as well?”

The other boy stares at him with a level of confusion in his eyes. “Some animals, I think? Like bugs and stuff.”

Jeremy’s eyes light up like stars. “Can you show me?!”

He looks down at the ground and swings his legs. “I don’t even know your name. Or your quirk.”

Oh! He knew he’d forgotten something!

“I’m Jeremy! I can grow flowers and plants from my hands! It’s nice to meet you!” he says, demonstrating by growing a small daisy and extending the other hand towards him.

His companion glances at his hand warily, before shaking it with just a hint of a smile on his face.

“I’m Michael.”

-

Jeremy is nine when he and Michael make a promise.

“I worked out a way to control my quirk better!” Michael yells as he runs around his living room. Jeremy grins at him from the sofa.

“That’s great! What happened? How did you do it?” he asks, leaning forward in his seat.

Michael turns to him. “I can show you! Can I control you?”

Jeremy thinks for a second- it can’t hurt, can it?

“Yeah, sure!” he nods.

Nothing happens for a moment. Jeremy isn’t sure what’s happe _ ning his arm is moving oh my god- _

The entire atmosphere changes. He can’t move his head to see Michael better but he can see how hard he’s focussing. He can’t do anything himself. His thoughts are a constant stream of worry.

His hand reaches his face, and his fingers trace across his skin, almost like they’re mapping his freckles. His legs start to move and he stands, legs shaking as if he doesn’t have full control. He slowly makes his way across the room, and stops just in front of Michael, and-

And...

Almost immediately after being stopped, a switch flips and the first thing he’s aware of is that he can move.

The next thing he is aware of is that his legs give way, which makes Michael gasp and catch him under his arms. Unfortunately, neither of them are very strong, so they both topple to the ground.

“Are- are you ok?” Michael asks him worriedly, sitting up from where he fell. Jeremy doesn’t answer, instead rubbing the back of his head and wincing when his fingers brush over the most sensitive part.

“I won’t do that ever again to you,  Jere , I promise. I hurt you, I can’t believe I hurt you, I'm so sorry,” he rambles, while Jeremy sits in shock on the floor.

Jeremy coughs. “You don’t have to promise that, Michael-”

“No, I hurt you! I’m going to promise to not control you. Just you, because I hurt you. Is that ok?”

Jeremy looks him in the eyes, tries to look for any hint of a joke. He can’t find anything.

“Okay.”

-

Jeremy is eleven when he finds out not everyone is as nice as Michael.

“You’re useless,” Oscar taunts, a sickening smile on his face. “All you can do is grow dumb flowers, you  _ pansy _ .”

Someone jeers at the pun. Jeremy swallows and clenches harder on his rucksack’s straps. “It’s not useless,” he counters, voice weak as the boys surround him. 

“Oh yeah? Show us, then,” another says- James, Jeremy thinks- as he moves forward again, slamming his foot down, forcing Jeremy to take another step back. His hands shake.

“W-we’re not allowed to use our quirks in school,” he stutters, looking down. A boy with bulls horns huffs a laugh and pokes a finger at him, making him flinch. 

“It’s not even a quirk worthy of anything, dumbass. See us? We’re going to rule the world with our quirks.”

He makes Jeremy move back another step. His back hits something, and he realises too late that they were backing him into a corner.  _ Frick. _

The group somehow all put on an identical terrifying smirk, and Jeremy shuts his eyes, ready for whatever impact they have, when a familiar voice calls out, “you know, if you want to rule the world, you might need better grades.”

He opens his eyes wide and smiles when he sees Michael standing behind the group, throwing a rock up into the air with a small grin on his face.

“Oh, look! It’s the pansy’s boyfriend!” Oscar crows, making the others laugh. “What are you going to do, grow him a bouquet of roses?”

“Hmm, I don’t know, how about you shut up?” Michael says, and then suddenly Oscar has this blank look on his face and is dumping the contents of his rucksack onto the ground. The others around him either freeze on their own accord or back off really quickly. Jeremy grins as he watches it unfold around him.

When it’s all over and everyone’s moved away or ran off, Michael makes his way over to Jeremy. “Are you ok?”

Jeremy nods and smiles. “That was amazing! You were so cool!!” he shakes Michael’s arm and they step over the contents of Oscar’s bag that he still has to come back and get. “Won’t you get in trouble, though?”

Michael laughs. “It’s worth it. They shouldn’t hurt you just because of your quirk, you know?” 

Jeremy looks down at the ground and mumble an  _ ‘I guess you’re right’  _ just loud enough, which makes Michael snicker, and say, “let’s go back to mine and watch High School Musical 2, yeah?” and he nods again and thinks about how cool it is to have a friend like Michael.

-

Jeremy is fourteen when he realises that he and Michael won’t be going in the same direction.

“I got into Constellate!” Jeremy exclaims, showing Michael the letter he’d got that morning. He’d been so ecstatic that he’d accidentally made  bouvardias grow from his hands which took a long time to pluck out. They’d made a nice bouquet, but it was still a little embarrassed. 

Michael smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Sounds great, dude. Congrats.”

Jeremy frowns, and his grins drops slightly. “Has your letter not arrived yet?” The letters arrive over a span of 3 days, and it’s the second day, so it’s totally plausible he hasn’t got it yet-

“I didn’t get in,” he says, turning away to face the window across the other side of the classroom. 

Jeremy blinks. “What?”

“I didn’t get into any hero courses I applied for. I’m going to the normal course we both applied for.”

Jeremy feels his whole world begin to crumble around him.

“Oh.”

Michael’s lips turn downwards condescendingly. “Yeah.  _ Oh.” _

He turns his head back to the front of the class as the teacher starts the lesson, and Jeremy feels a divide start to come between them.

-

Jeremy is sixteen when he works out his feelings towards a certain classmate.

“I can’t believe I'm the one who’s visiting you in the sick room,” Jake says with a grin as he makes his way towards the bed Jeremy is currently propped up in. Jeremy smiles weakly back at him.

“It’s a weird day, for sure,” he jokes as he pulls a chair up to the side of the bed. “Why are you here, anyway? I'll be out in a minute.”

“Well, you always visit me, so I thought I'd repay the favour for the amount of time I take out of your day for that.”

Jeremy snickers and rolls his eyes. “I don’t mind, it’s fine. How are the others?”

“Christine asked me to tell you that she is very annoyed at you and that you should be more careful, and Rich said he’s sorry for not letting you know that Noah would break your leg.”

The two laugh a moment, before a comfortable silence falls between them. Jeremy picks at the bedsheet.

“So how long do you need to stay here for?” Jake asks, a concerned look on his face. 

“The nurse said until 4 o’clock. I think that’s when her quirk will’ve fully fixed my leg? Something like that.”

Jake nods. “Yeah, you hurt yourself pretty badly... at least it’s Friday, huh?” he jokes. 

Jeremy laughs. “Yeah, I guess. The only annoying thing is I’ve had to cancel my Japanese lesson for today, but we weren’t going to go over anything important.”

“You’re such a  weeb ,” Jake says with a smirk on his face. 

Jeremy groans. “Are you ever going to get a new joke? I don’t see you learning another fucking language.”

“True, but I'm not the one learning Japanese.”

“Japan is the number 1 hero nation, Jake. Also, have you heard what’s been happening in their top hero school? Someone literally got kidnapped by a gang of villains, and some students rescued them last year. Forgive me for being interested,” he says, smiling.

Jake considers it. “Yeah, true... but it’s Japanese.”

“Oh my god, just stop.” he deadpans, pulling one of the cushions out from behind him and  faceplanting into it, which makes Jake laugh.

“Nah. You love it.”

Jeremy pauses before retaliating back to let himself think a second.

Oh. Well.

Hm.

...fuck it.

“Yeah, I do.”

He smiles at Jake, and hopes to high heaven his face (or hands) isn’t giving away his current internal screaming.

(he realises later that he had grown  Clovenlip Toadflax from his hands, which makes him feel very extremely grateful that Jake doesn’t know barely any plant symbolism at all.)

-

Jeremy is seventeen when he lets himself accept that he and Michael aren’t friends any more.

“...You’re still texting him?” Rich asks him with a raised eyebrow after glancing over at Jeremy’s phone.

Jeremy smiles bitterly. “Yeah. I don’t know why. Seems like a tradition at this point,” he mutters, tapping on the message box and typing a few different messages.

_ Jerememe _ _ : hey dude, happy  _ _ bir _ _ ¦ _

_ Jerememe _ _ :  _ _ 🎉🎉 _ _ have a great da¦ _

_ Jerememe _ _ : hope your birthday’s  _ _ grea _ _ ¦ _

In the end, he decided on a simple message.

_ Jerememe _ _ : Happy birthday!! Hope you have a great day  _ ヅ

He sends it and slides his phone back his inside blazer pocket as class starts.

When lunch comes round, the others immediately come up to engage him in conversation as they walk to the cafeteria. He knows they’re trying to get Jeremy’s mind off the text, but it’s not working.

“Guys, I know you’re trying to distract me,” he says quietly, which makes Jake sigh.

“We’re just- look, just check to see if he’s seen it, then put it away, yeah? I don’t want you getting too down about it.” he takes a sip of his energy drink and grins promptingly.

Jeremy rolls his eyes and reaches for his phone. “I’m not getting down about it! I just want to know if he’s seen it-”

His eyes widen.

**_ 1 new message _ **

**_ MellMichael _ ** **_ :  _ ** _ stop texting me. _

He stares at it. He hears the noise around as just a low buzz. Before long, his vision starts to get blurry.  _ Oh, he’s going to cry. _

“Did... did he answer?” Christine asks him. The tiny bit of hope that leaks through her voice kills him.

Jeremy lowers his phone and smiles shakily at his friends, eyes watery. He sees Rich wincing.

“He doesn’t want me to text him anymore.” 

He feels a tear trail down his cheek, and Jake gets to him in what seems like an inhuman time, some type of flower is growing rapidly from his palms and wrapping round his wrists, and Jeremy lets himself accept that he’s lost a friend.

-

Jeremy is eighteen when he and Jake ‘finally get their shit together’ (Rich’s words, not his).

“...and that’s the last rose!” Jeremy says, clapping his hands and standing back to admire his handiwork; he’s decorated the entire school hall with flowers to celebrate prom night.

“Pretty impressive, Jeremy,” one of his classmates says, leaning in the double door-frame. He grins at them. 

“Thanks, Aqua. Hey, would you mind filling up a couple of these vases with water? I still have a few more to fill.”

They nod, and quickly fill up the vases.

“So, what do they mean? The flowers. You’re into that stuff, right?” they ask as they finish filling the last vase and look back around the hall.

Jeremy sighs and points at the different ones as he arranges them. 

“Yellow roses mean friendship, chrysanthemums are optimism, daffodils are good fortune, hibiscuses are celebration and the irises are for hope,” he lists off. Aqua nods, but then a familiar voice yells from behind him, “ Yo ,  Jer !”

He jolts in shock and jumps around, only to face Jake. He lets out a small squeak. (He sees Aqua head off with a small wave in his direction, and he reciprocates.)

“Hey, Jake!” he manages to get out, smiling.

Jake smiles back. “So, uh, you excited for later?” he looks nervous. 

“Yeah, it’s going to be fun,” he comments as he turns back around to the flowers. He sees one drooping slightly and presses his palm into it, which makes it perk back up.

Jake laughs from behind him, but there’s an edge to his voice. Jeremy turns around.

“Dude, what’s up? I’m the nervous one out of us too, so something’s bothering you big-time. Just say it.” he crosses his arms and meets his eyes. 

Jake’s eyes flit around for a few moments.

And then he very quickly holds his clenched fist out to show Jeremy what he’s holding. Jeremy blinks.

It's a flower. A foxglove to be specific, and Jeremy’s heart flips a bit when he realises that it’s one of his favourites (that he talks about).

“I, uh...” he trails off and laughs nervously. “You said that foxgloves were, like, your favourite flowers, and, well, I know you can grow flowers from your hands, so it’s a pretty stupid way of asking, but...”

He looks up and there’s this serious expression in his eyes that’s kind of making Jeremy melt a bit. (he has no idea how he’s not freaking out right now. Is this what he thinks it is?)

“...can we go to prom together?”

The two stay still for a moment. A door creaks. (Jeremy suspects that Christine and Rich are watching through one of the windows.)

Jeremy stares at him, and just whispers, “Holy shit.”

Jake cracks up at that, as Jeremy takes the flower and stares at it with a sense of wonder. “What?”

“I just- holy  _ shit _ . Is this real? Are we sure I didn’t have a sparring accident and I'm just hallucinating??” Jeremy whispers, which makes Jake wheeze.

“No, you idiot, I'm asking you to go to prom with me!” he says, grinning.

Jeremy shakes his head playfully. “It’s 5 hours before prom starts, Jake. How late were you planning to leave it?” 

Jake flushes slightly (oh, it  _ must _ be bad, he never flushes). “Well... I was just going to ask you to dance with me later-”

Jeremy cuts him off with a finger to his lips and a smirk on his face. “I can’t believe you procrastinated on asking me out. You’re a- you're a serial procrastinator, Jake Dillinger.”

Jake cracks a grin again. “Better late than never?”

Jeremy grins, grows a small  thornless , lavender rose (better ram the meanings in) and holds it out for Jake to take it.

“Sounds good to me.”

-

Jeremy is nineteen when he and Jake go to Japan in their gap year, and when he tells Rich how it went.

_ “So, how did the last week go,  _ _ loverboy _ _?” _ Rich says, slightly tinny over the phone speakers. Jeremy scoffs.

“If you call me that again, I won’t be able to tell you how my meeting with  Deku went,” he threatens with a smile as he pours himself a cup of coffee.

_ “No way! You met  _ _ Deku _ _?” _ Rich gasps, and Jeremy grins ecstatically, even though he knows Rich can’t see him.

“You knew we would,” he snickers, “but yes, we did. He was really nice! It was totally surreal, I'll be honest; we’re standing in front of a hero who is on track to be number one in Japan, and he’s freaking out about meeting  _ us, _ two kids just out of high school.”

_ “Well, so is he,  _ _ tallass _ _! Don’t be so hard on yourself! _ ” Jeremy can picture Rich saying this with while standing with his hands on his hips which nearly makes him laugh halfway through a sip of coffee.

“Yeah, well, whatever, it was awesome either way. The funniest part was definitely when he turned to talk to  Syncronize \- you know, the one with red and white hair- to say something like ‘what’s the other one’s name?’, since he’d only talked to me at this point and I just said in Japanese, ‘oh, his name is Jake’, and you should have seen their  _ faces _ , my god.”

Rich laughs on the other side of the line, and pauses to yawn, which makes Jeremy frown.

“Dude, are you ok? It’s like 6 o’clock over there, right?”

_ “Yeah, but I was up all last night with patrol. Had a really long shift. Anyway, continue,” _ he says as he finishes yawning.

Jeremy rolls his eyes but continues. “Uh... where was I- oh, right. So, that was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened the first day, everything else was just sorting out events and things we can do while we’re here.  Y’know , it turns out a lot of people know the American heroes, because I we got stopped twice for autographs? That was super surreal. Then until yesterday it was patrol and hero stuff. Sorry I didn’t call, by the way, I know Jake did, but I still felt kinds bad-”

_ “It’s fine! I knew you’d be MIA for this trip, it’s fine with me.” _

Jeremy rolls his eyes. “Wow, you’re so understanding. Uh, but yesterday was fun!  Deku had arranged a meeting with some of his old classmates from U-A, and there were so many of my idols there, Rich, you have no idea how much I freaked meeting some of these people.”

_ “I can imagine,” _ Rich snorts.  _ “So what happened?” _

“Well, most of them were ok with speaking in English, they actually wanted to practice it, so Jake was fine most of the night. There were so many people who wanted to talk to us and say, so we decided to split off so we could talk to our own people.”

Rich hums.  _ “Ok, uh... I'm running out of things to ask so,  _ _ uhhhhh _ _... who was the most interesting one you talked to?” _

Jeremy pauses to take a drink from his cup. “That’s a hard one. Well,  Chargebolt was the funniest, I think? Him and Jake got on really well. Most interesting... uh, actually, it was someone  Chargebolt knew, an underground hero called  Mindwash ? Him and  Chargebolt were together, so it was funny watching them pretend to be just friends until I told them me and Jake were extremely gay for each other.” Rich snorts, which makes Jeremy laugh. “Anyway, me and  Mindwash talked for a while, and-”

_ “Do you mind if I ask you something that you’ve probably been asked, like, a thousand times?” Jeremy asks.  _ _ Mindwash _ _ snorts. _

_ “Is it about my quirk?” _

_ Jeremy picks at his jumper. “ _ _ Kinda _ _... you and my  _ _ frie _ _ \- uh, an old friend have quite similar quirks, but you’ve both gone down... different paths,” he says, trying to avoid the actual fact of ‘ _ _ i’m _ _ pretty sure my first friend has become a villain and you both have pretty similar quirks and I really need to work out why he went into villainy so my mind can be at rest and I'm sorry if this is offensive’. _

_ Mindwash _ _ raises an eyebrow. “Go ahead, then.” _

_ He hesitates, before asking, “...how did you know you wanted to be a hero? I mean, I don’t know, but you must have got some discrimination against it.” _

_ There’s a beat of silence, and then his companion sighs. “Yeah, I've had a lot of discrimination over the years. People finding out about my quirk and then just... not talking to me ever again. I’ve been told it’s a villainous quirk countless times. And it hurts. It really, really hurts.” he pauses to look over at where  _ _ Chargebolt _ _ and Jake (he really needs to start calling him Flight in public, huh) are sitting and chatting, before starting again. _

_ “I just got past it. No-one was going to believe in me, so I made them believe. I got into the general study course at UA and worked my ass off until I got placed in the hero course. I made them see that I was going to become a hero whether they liked it or not.” he smiles softly when  _ _ Chargebolt _ _ catches his eye, and Jeremy nods. _

_ The two sit in a comfortable silence, before  _ _ Mindwash _ _ asks, “If you don’t mind telling me, what was your friend’s quirk?” _

_ “Um... he can control people’s movements at will as long as they're in his eyesight. He doesn’t need to ask a question like you, though, he just takes control. But he can’t control their minds, they’re still conscious, but usually they’re scared out of their minds. I mean, I should know best-” he cuts himself off and stares down at his hands folded in his lap. He can feel  _ _ Mindwash’s _ _ eyes on him. _

_ “You know what I think, Thorn?” Jeremy almost frowns at the name but then remembers that’s his hero name. _

_ “What?” he whispers. _

_ “I think your friend is just a dick.” Jeremy startles at that, meeting  _ _ Mindwash’s _ _ eyes. _

_ “...Oh.” _

_ “You don’t have to tell me anything more about your ex-friend, but maybe he just wasn’t strong enough.” he shrugs. “I know it sounds harsh, and I'm sorry. But he most likely just didn’t want it. I hope that helps you move on.” _

_ Jeremy sighs, but offers a smile. “It does a bit. Thanks,  _ _ Mindwash _ _ -” _

_ He exhales impatiently, which makes Jeremy pause. “Oh, for God’s sake, you’re not going to tell anyone my name. I’m  _ _ Shinsou _ _ Hitoshi,” he says holding out a hand to shake. _

_ Jeremy looks at it, grins, and shakes it. “I’m Jeremy  _ _ Heere _ _. Nice to meet you,  _ _ Shinsou _ _.” _

“Jeremy?”

He blinks and realises he stopped talking. “Sorry, sorry. Zoned out for a second. Yeah, he was cool. I’ve never met an underground hero outside of those school lectures, so that was nice to know they actually exist.”

Rich hums, but Jake starts to stir from where he’s laying in the hotel room bed, and Jeremy notes the time, and he panics.

“Oh shit- uh, Rich, I have to go, it’s nearly time for us to start,” he says, getting up and starting to move around the room.

_ “Hey, no problem! I get it, man, no worries. Talk later?” _

“Talk later,” he confirms, “bye! Love you, dude.”

_ “Love you too, bye!” _ the phone beeps, but Jeremy doesn’t hear it as he rushes over to wake Jake up.

“Jake. Jake!” Jake mumbles in his sleeps and doesn’t move. Jeremy groans in frustration. 

“Jake, we have to wake up, we’re going to be late if we don’t get ready  soo -”

Jake reaches out sleepily, wraps his arms around Jeremy’s neck and pulls him down to lay down with him, ignoring the  taller’s squeak of surprise.

“Jus’ five more minutes...” he mumbles into Jeremy’s neck, who squirms for a few moments before giving up.

“ _ Three _ more minutes,” he tries to bargain as Jake nestles into his hair.

“Yeah, whatever... anything’s fine with you.”

Jeremy rolls his eyes. “You’re such a sap,” he says, even as he snuggles further into Jake’s warm grip.  _ Three more minutes. _

-

Jeremy is twenty-one when he gets invited to talk to a class of students at Constellate.

“So,” Mr Reyes says after Jeremy finishes his pre-planned talk, “does anyone have any questions for Thorn?”

A few hands go up, and Reyes just picks a random student with long blonde hair from the middle row.

“How did you come up with your hero name?” she asks, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. “I know it’s pretty self-explanatory, but did you find it hard?”

Jeremy chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck. “Aha... yeah, I really did. I got super anxious about what I would be known by; I mean, if you get to be a big hero then it’s all you’re known for, right? I went through so many options, but in the end I just picked 2 I would be happy with either way, and flipped a coin.”

“What was the other option?” someone asks from somewhere in the class.

“I think it was something like  Flowerbomb ? Maybe,” Jeremy says, making a few people snicker. “Anyone else?”

It goes on like that for a while, as more and more people get the courage to ask their own questions.

“Who’s your favourite pro hero to work with?” (it’s Christine, or ‘Linkup’ as he has to say.)

“What’s your favourite flower?” (he has to restrain himself from listing off names like a Wikipedia page, but he manages to limit himself to three.)

“Who did you get your quirk from?” (“A bit of both, really. My dad can grow flowers too, but from the back of his neck instead of his hands, and my mom could manipulate non-living things around her to a certain extent. They kind of merged, and so I can grow plants from my hands”- he demonstrates to the wonder of the class- “and I've trained over the years to manipulate the surrounding plant life.” the class look on in awe.)

“Are you dating Flight?” (that makes his face flush and makes Reyes guffaw loudly. He doesn’t answer it.)

The questions peter out, he finishes off, the class go to lunch, and he goes to pick up his bag when he feels a small tap on his shoulder. He turns around and is met by a girl almost his height with her hair in bunches.

“Hi! Did you want to ask a question?” he asks, pulling his bag strap fully onto his shoulder.

She nods and looks down at her feet. “Um... you used to know my brother, Michael, when you were younger. He's... gone missing. Do you know where he is?”

He feels his heart drop out of his chest. “Oh my god, Angel? I’m so sorry I didn’t recognise you!” he says, holding his arms out. She accepts the hug and they stand there for a moment before she pushes off again.

“It’s not a problem, I've changed a lot... it’s nice to see you again, Jeremy. I was so surprised when I saw you on the  tv a while ago.” she smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

“Thanks, Angel. But I didn’t know he’d disappeared. The last I heard from him was in middle school. I’m sorry.” he offers a small smile, but she opens her mouth again.

“I’m becoming a hero so I can do what he couldn’t.” she says, and the atmosphere changes, like her voice is the only thing that’s in the room. Jeremy’s transfixed. “I’m going to do what he couldn’t because otherwise I... I...”

The effect breaks, and he jolts to her side to offer her a tissue for the welling tears in her eyes. She accepts it and aggressively wipes them.

“...Anyway, I just wanted to know if you’d heard anything. Your talk was really interesting. Thanks,” she says, smiling sadly at him. He reciprocates it and watches her walk out the door as she presumably goes to lunch.

_...well. _

-

Jeremy is twenty-two when he hears the news.

“Hey,  Jer ,” Jeremy hears Jake say from the living room.

“Hey,” he answers wearily, closing the door and dropping his bag next to the umbrella stand and Jake’s crutches. He makes his way down the hallway and leans in the doorway of the living room.

Jake grins at him from where he’s positioned on the sofa and holds his arms out. “What’s up, babe?” 

Jeremy snorts. “Long day. Very, very long day.” he sits down next to Jake and leans into his side.

Jake hums. “Anything big happen?”

“No, it was mainly just small things and paperwork. And trying not to get chased after by fans. I don’t know what they want from me, honestly,” he says, pulling his legs up so he could curl into a ball.

“Oh? You don’t? Well, I do,” Jake mutters, before turning his head and pressing his lips against Jeremy’s. He smiles into it wraps his arms around his shoulders.

After a few moments, Jeremy pulls away and leans his head against Jake’s shoulder. “Hmmm, I still don’t get it. Maybe one day your help will pay off.” he grins at his boyfriend and turns to the TV. “What were you watching?”

“Nothing really, I just wanted some background noise while I messing around on my phone.” he picks it up and shakes it a bit to demonstrate. “ Wanna watch anything?”

“Just flick through the channels till we find something,” Jeremy says, turning on his own phone. Should he begin the behemoth daily task that most top heroes get of going through their Instagram DMs? Or just play some mindless mobile game. Or maybe continue-

A news reader flashes on screen with a headline that Jeremy only catches a few words of. 

“ Waitwait , wait, leave this on,” he says, shaking Jake’s arm.

He huffs. “You’ve just got off of work, you can hold off the news for a while-”

But Jeremy doesn’t hear him. He couldn’t if he tried.

On the screen, the headline reads his worst nightmare come true.

_ New villain evades capture: ‘The Controller’ destroys buildings in downtown Trenton, NJ,  _ and a blurry picture of the person in question.

There's only a handful of pixels, but Jeremy would recognise that silhouette anywhere he went.

“Michael’s a...” 

_ A villain. _

It’s a statement. A declaration of fact. A way of life.

An end of a decade of hoping and praying. That there wouldn’t be any mention of a quirk like his in the news, that one day he’d walk into a shop and see him there swiping the barcodes of packets of celery, that he’d use the phrase ‘no news is good news’ for everyday in his goddamn life.

He hears Jake say his name distantly, but he can’t hear it. He's just staring at the television. He sees the headline change to a new story, but he can’t comprehend anything.

He can’t comprehend it.

Well. He can understand it, has understood it for a while, but that’s not the issue.

He can’t understand  _ him. _

“-rom your hands, a-and the thorns are digging into your hands. Can I-”

His eyes snap to Jake’s. He looks worried. ( _ what the fuck _ , he internally screams,  _ you made Jake worried, you fucker.) _

Jake swallows, and continues talking in a soft voice. “You’ve hurt your hands, Jer. Can I clean them?”

He blinks, before slowly unclenching his hands to see the crumpled black petals stained with the familiar dark red liquid.  _ Black roses. Figures. _

Jeremy nods, and Jake seems to let out a sigh of relief, then helps him up slowly and walks him through the apartment to the bathroom, where he cleans his hands of blood and patches his hands up. Jeremy just watches on in a daze.

He doesn’t say anything until Jake is just washing his own hands, and even  then it’s in a broken whisper. “I’m going to have to fight him, aren’t I.” it’s not a question.

Jake freezes while drying his hands and turns to Jeremy with shiny eyes. Jeremy frowns. 

“Why are you crying?”

Jake lets out a shuddering sigh, and walks forward to envelope Jeremy in a hug, resting his chin on top of Jeremy’s head.

“I’m not going to let him anywhere near you, Jer. That’s a promise, ok? If he so much as  _ touches _ you...”

Jeremy nods against his chest, understanding what he means. 

“Thanks, J,” he whispers.

Jake’s arms tighten impossibly closer around him. “Anytime.”

-

(Jeremy is twenty-three when he begins to teach Jake about some different flower meanings.

“So this one means, uh... purity?” Jake says, pointing at the white lily. Jeremy nods and smiles.

“Yep! That’s specifically white lilies, though. Lilies in general represent the love between two women, so yeah,” he says, moving the flower out of the way so he could look at the next one.

He hums in concentration. “It’s a buttercup, and that means riches?” he cocks an eyebrow. “Not like we’ll get that from our pay,” he jokes, making Jeremy snort and present the last one for the day.

“This one’s a bit trickier, but we went over this one yesterday. Can you remember it?”

“Um... oh! This is the, uh,  toadlip cloverflax ??” he says, to Jeremy’s amusement.

“Eh... close enough. It’s the  clovenlip toadflax, and it means, eh...” he waves his hand around in a prompting gesture, but Jake answers with another topic.

“Hey, I forgot, isn’t this the one you always used to grow around me? Like, until we were in senior year?”

The next few minutes are filled with Jeremy stuttering and flailing for an answer while Jake laughs good-naturedly, and sure, it might be the most embarrassed he’s ever felt in his life, but at least he’s with Jake.)

-

Jeremy is twenty-five when the inevitable finally happens.

_ “Jeremy, there’s a couple people approaching you behind and to the left,”  _ Christine says into the  Thoughtlink . He hums in answer and turns around to bind the two together with a few meters of vines and dragging them to where they can be dealt with safely before re-joining the conflict. He hates fighting the SQUIP gangs.

“Where’s Jake?” he asks absentmindedly, trying to scope out the familiar wings in the chaos lower down.

_ “He’s still helping some hostages out of the area,”  _ she says after a few moments (presumably checking his location),  _ “are you heading back in?” _

“Do we know who the main villain is here out of the known SQUIPS? If I have a clearer idea of who it is, I can work out a good strategy,” he says, tapping his fingers against his leg as he waits for Christine to answer him.

...she doesn’t.

He frowns. “You still there, Chris?”

He hears her sigh.  _ “We haven’t worked out exactly who it is yet, but their quirk is extremely similar to-” _

But he doesn’t hear the end of her sentence as she gets cut off and static fills his brain. He frowns even deeper. “Christine? Christine?! Are you okay?”

He gets no answer, and he groans in frustration. “Ok then,” he mutters to himself, shooting a few vines and swinging down (sue him, he likes  spiderman ) to a lower level to assess the situation. He scans the area for a few seconds, and finally sees someone he can go after.

Down on the ground, a person stands wearing the trademark SQUIP coat with the hood over their head and covering their face, but theirs is dark grey, showing their low status in the group. They don’t seem to be doing any close combat work, as everyone is just... staying away. 

Jeremy frowns in confusion as he ducks behind a ledge. Why is no-one going after them? There are at least five other heroes on this attack, and none of them are near him if Christine’s previous indications were correct.

He decides to get a bit closer and work out what to do then. As he creeps behind walls and small over-hangings, he tries to work out what quirk this person has. They must be able to keep people far away from them without almost any effort; maybe a  forcefield ?

When he’s close enough behind him, he spots one of the other heroes on the mission about 20 feet away, lying on the ground, twitching slightly. He winces, and shoots a quick Thought to Christine (if she’s even still there) to get someone there as quick as possible.

Jeremy takes a deep breath; it never gets less scary when you’re about to confront a villain, but he has to ground himself. He finds the confidence in him from somewhere, and rapidly shoots lengths of vines towards the person’s arms, before pulling them around to face him, he’s ready to create his first wave of thorns when he sees their face.

His eyes are wide open in shock, and during his sharp pull his hood managed to slide off his head, showing his ginger hair. Like Jeremy, he’s got cuts and bruises on his face, a black eye in one case. One lens of his wire-frames glasses is cracked. His jeans are ripped and the skin underneath is visibly bloody and scraped. 

But it’s  _ him,  _ and the world seems to have stopped except for the birds and distant traffic _. _

Jeremy blinks. So does his rival. He knows who it is too.

“Michael?”

Unfortunately, this seems to snap his opponent out of his daze, and rapidly Jeremy feels the old sensation of panic fill his chest.

But this time it’s duller. Less effective. Like he doesn’t want it happening.

“I don’t fucking care about what I said all those years ago,” he hears a voice say distantly, and he can vaguely connect that it’s Michael’s, but right now he’s too busy focussing on what a certain purple-haired Japanese hero taught him a few years ago.

_ “You’re getting the hang of it,”  _ _ Shinsou _ _ says when Jeremy manages to break out of his quirk in just under a minute. Jeremy pants, but nods in acknowledgement of the comment. _

_ “This is... getting... easier, surprisingly,” he says between breaths that aren’t as heavy as they were near the beginning. They’ve taken a whole 4 hours out of the day to practice getting out of each other's quirks, and he’s getting the hang of forcefully leaving the trance now. _

_ “ _ _ Wanna _ _ continue?”  _ _ Shinsou _ _ says with a smirk on his face when Jeremy stands up again. He copies the expression and laughs. _

_ “Go ahead.” _

Just snap out of it. Just  snap out of it. Find an opening, find an-

He feels the control lapse for a moment while his legs start to move, and he grabs onto it for dear life and  _ pulls _ . Clearly Michael can feel it too, because for a moment it intensifies beyond belief and he nearly loses focus...

But then his shoulders are free, and he can breathe, and Michael is standing in front of him slack-jawed. Jeremy grins at him and flexes his hands.

“Oh, you don’t have to.”

It seems to flash past in a rush of plant stems and adrenaline, but before he knows  it he’s snapping quirk-restraining handcuffs on his wrists and leads him to a police van and watches it go down the street. People start to congratulate him, ask him how he got out of his Control and he just shrugs. He finds Jake with a medic in the lobby of building, sitting in front of a tv screen that was obviously just broadcasting the action, if the look on his face when he sees Jeremy means anything. He hugs him when the medic moves away, but it’s cut short when they get a message from Christine saying she has the report of the damage and hostages. He gets a message on his phone from a pro in Japan that it was an amazing fight. They go home after about an hour and a half.

The day passes in a haze, like he’s watching from spectator mode. It doesn’t feel real. 

When he and Jake get into bed later that day (not really that much later in the day; only about 9pm), he hears Jake whisper, “are you ok?”

He doesn’t answer for a few moments, instead intertwining their fingers together.

“I think so,” he answers in a croaky voice. “I mean, I'm going to have to talk to him in a few days, so. Maybe I can convince him to turn good. I don’t know. I just feel really stressed. I haven’t talked in like 3 hours and I usually can’t go 5 minutes without saying something. It just felt like such a climax and now I'm really exhausted and I can’t really form proper sentences. But there’s a lot on my mind and I keep thinking about things from when we were kids like movies we used to watch and games we used to play and he’s hurt me _ so  _ much by just not being there. I wish...”

Jake pulls him closer after a minute or two. “It’s ok, Jer. It’s ok not to be ok after today. Today was... a lot.” He runs his hand through Jeremy’s hair shakily, stopping at the base of his neck.

“Can we talk more about it tomorrow?” Jeremy murmurs into his shoulder. He’s really tired and his thoughts will probably be more coherent tomorrow anyway.

Jake nods. “Yeah, sure. Night Jer. Love you.”

“Love you too,” he whispers back, but he’s already drifting off.

-

Jeremy is 2 days older when he sees Michael again.

“And you’re sure you’re ok with seeing him? We have him under control but you’re sure you can hold your own?” a woman with a clipboard asks him. He nods.

“Yeah, I'll be fine. You’re ok with what I want to ask him?”

She shrugs. “Well, we know your plan, and he’s under enough restriction to be safe.” she gestures towards the door and smiles. “Are you ready?”

He smiles back. “Uh-huh. Thanks, I haven’t had to do this before and it’s nice that you’re here.”

“No problem, sir. He's waiting for you in the room.” She  opens the door, and before he can hesitate again he walks through the door.

Theres a  piece of  glass between them, but otherwise they’re close. He sits  slumped in his chair, flicking at his arm , and looks up when he sees Jeremy come in.

“Hey, Michael,” he says almost conversational  as he takes the seat opposite.

Michael looks at him blankly for a  second before going to back to flicking at his arm. “I  don't want to talk to anyone .”

“Well, I was told you accepted this meeting when you didn’t have to, so that's a lie." Jeremy grins at him through the glass, which doesn’t get a reaction out of him.

“...How did you get out of my hold?” it's almost inquisitive, almost the first bit of emotion he gets Michael to  express.

Jeremy hums.  “ I was lucky to train with someone who has a similar quirk to yours a  while ago. Maybe I could put  him in contact with you; you could train together?”

Michael looks at him  coldly. “You think he's going to want to train with a villain? I'm not even good at what I do,” he scoffs. 

Jeremy hesitates. “Um, well, that’s actually partly what I wanted to talk to you about.”

Michael raises an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“Well, the police were going to give you jail time like they do for most villains, but they've recently started up a villain rehabilitation program. It helps people to learn to fit back into society. So, you can choose jail time, or rehabilitation. Have you heard about Chloe Valentine, the Seductor? She’s training to be a hero at the moment.”

Michael  pauses in his arm-flicking and looks up at him.  It’s the first time Jeremy gets to have a good look at his face; his eyes are sunken in , one with a black eye ,  and his glasses are taped together. His hair is dirty and needs a cut, but the blood has been  washed off at least.

“ I don’t know how to be anything other than a villain,” he says. “I've hurt so many people. I’ve hurt... I can't go back into real life after that.”

“They'll teach you how.” 

“Aren't I wanted?”

“If you can prove you've changed, they'll let you go.”

Michael holds Jeremy’s gaze, before scowling and dropping his eyes to his hand resting on the table. 

Jeremy sighs. “Look, Michael, I know you don't want to be a villain. I might not know you, but most people would have either tried to break out or at least throw around some punches. You've done neither. You haven’t even resisted once, or so I’ve been told. You can do go to jail if you want, but it’s not worth it when you have the opportunity to become a person again.”

He sees the outline of his reflection in the glass, looking resolute. Michael glances up at him, but looks back down when he catches his eye. 

He waits a few more moments, before getting up. His time is up soon anyway. “The program takes 2 years.  You can ask someone around here for more  detai -"

“Wait!”

Jeremy jumps in surprise. He turns around to see Michael standing up harshly out of his chair, making it fall backwards to the floor, his eyes wide. 

“I... I wanted to say sorry. For Controlling you the other day. And I'll do the program. I just... want to feel normal, for once.” he blinks. His eyes look more honest now.

Jeremy smiles at him. “Just give me a second.”

He pokes his head out the door and tells the closest person that he’s going to go over his time limit with Michael. Then he gets back inside, sits back down at his chair and grins.

“It’s ok. We should probably start again.”

Michael frowns. “Why? We already know each other.”

“Well, we’ve missed out on a good 10 years of friendship, and we’ve both changed a lot. So, let me introduce myself- I'm Jeremy Heere, and I'm 25 years old. What’s your name?”

Michael looks at him like he’s mad. “I’m... Michael?”

Jeremy laughs. “Hi Michael! It’s nice to meet you. I hope we’ll be good friends.” he grows a small daffodil in his palm, and reaches up to drop it over the edge of the glass. “Here. It represents new beginnings.”

Michael stares at it from where it’s landed in his hands. It takes a few moments, but eventually he smiles, and for the first time since he’s come in the room it reaches his eyes. “Thanks. I hope so too.”

**Author's Note:**

> ao3 ate the quality of my picture :( if you want a better-ish quality version, follow this link: https://www.reddit.com/user/ZillaThaKilla/comments/j0bkga/bmc_bnha_au/
> 
> extra things!!
> 
> flower meanings:  
> -daisies: innocence, purity  
> -bouvardias: excitement, enthusiasm  
> -clovenlip toadflax: please notice my love/feelings for you  
> -foxgloves: insecurity  
> -thornless or lavender roses: love at first sight  
> -black roses: death, sorrow, despair  
> -daffodils: new beginnings, uncertainty 
> 
> if you have any suggestions of things you would like to see in this au, please tell me! i need some motivation rn thanks to school, so if you saw anything that intrugued you please don't hesitate to comment a suggestion! i'm planning to write something about michael's time in the SQUIP gang, so we'll see :D
> 
> thanks for reading!  
> -arch


End file.
